What made you smile today?

I'm reading Orr My Story. There's chapter in it, "Grapes", devoted to
Don Cherry. Bobby Orr writes that Grapes himself actually picks out the
fabrics for his outlandish jackets from a fabric store. Wouldn't you love to
be there for that?

Yesterday my everything communication company called me and told me theyve decided to give me 2 years HBO for free. WOWEE was my first remark,I later calmed down when I watched some of the **** that on HBO. (Now Im not smiling because Ive probably been screwed all these years by my cable company)

Then I started smiling again because they are redoing the Sopranos as a 20 year anniversary. (Is james Gandolfini still dead?)

Simple things make me smile. I got my haircut today, and tipped the barber double the cost of the cut for Happy New Year.

HBO is filled with delights. Have you seen Game of Thrones?

I would absolutely love to date any of these people!

Real conversations. No fakeness.

They all understood the reason for a date, and actually listened to the other person.

A friend was telling a story about a long layover spent in a Chicago train station.
For some reason my mind flashed back on a memory from sixty-five years ago. I was six and my brother was ten. We were on a trip and we had a similar wait in some place.
Back then there were these things called "pay telephones." People would put coins in and the phone would give you change and if the person being called wasn't home it would refund your money.
My brother and I would check the change slots on what seemed a hundred of these phones. You would be surprised at the amount of spare change we would find in the course of our wait. We each amassed a fortune of a dollar or two.

Was it the Union Station in Chicago? My office was across the street from the station, so I went to lunch with my boss there several times. That place never changed since the first time I visited in the earliest times of my travel to the Windy City. Lived there twice, and once in Naperville, IL. The Art Institute and Museum of Science and Industry were my favorites. Rush Street had many night clubs and good restaurants, and some good pizza joints.

I don’t think anyone will understand this, but it was the best sentence I’ve heard this year as a teacher.

A kid, who I know is brilliant but completely checked out of classes, told me during a sarcastic conversation what might motivate him to give it everything he’s got on a very challenging test. He always blows the tests off- as do many kids- just randomly checking boxes. The tests require critical analysis of four difficult literary passages as well as evaluation and selection of nuanced possible answers.

When I asked the class what I could do to compel them to actually do their very best on these horrific tests, this kid pipes up and says ‘a PlayStation party’.

By god, I convinced the grade level teachers to get on board, and we’re throwing a psychotically irreverent, cake-having, PlayStation-gaming fun party for kids who beat their previous scores by several points.

They can’t believe it.

So, a week after the kids have been buzzing about the gamer festival, this kid comes, knocks on my classroom door during my class, and sidles up to me, hilariously close-talking me at my door, whispering, “I am going to make the highest score of everybody on that test.”

Despite grammatical issues, this kid saying this to me, unsolicited, has made my year.

Aw - that brought a smile to my face too.

Walking into my teen's bedroom and seeing the mess - clothes thrown about - her towel on the floor....etc.

Most people this would make them mad --- me it brought a smile to my face - because that is my little one all over.

Hope she doesn't visit and read your a2k posts. She might take advantage of your room-maintenance lenience here.

An obit to aspire to:
Tim Schrandt (Lynyrd) made his last inappropriate comment on March 29, 2019. If you are wondering if you may have ever met him, you didn't -because you WOULD remember. For those of you that did meet him, we apologize, as we're sure he probably offended you. He was world renowned for not holding back and telling it like it is.

Tim was born to William (Bill) Schrandt and Mary (Schrandt) Manning on June 11,1955 - 100 years too late. Given Tim's demeanor he would have been the perfect weathered cowboy in the old west or rough and tough pioneer, or maybe he just should have been Amish.

Tim was the 4th of 8 kids, the bottom rung of the top tier (the big kids). Instead of taking his place on that rung, listening to the older kids and doing as he was told by his older siblings, he decided to anoint himself "king" of the 4 little kids. Tim spent his childhood and early adulthood ordering them around and in general, tormenting them. He was a great orator, (not like Shakespear, but more like Yogi Berra), as he always had something to say,
and always had to get in the last word.

His position as "king" and orator was challenged by the nuns at St. Wenceslaus school in Spillville. He may have met his match. We’re not saying the nuns won, but they put up a good fight, we mean literally - he got into a fist-a-cuff with a nun. In fairness, she probably started it. You didn't take a swing at Tim and not expect one back. Tim's fondness for authority (his own - not others) followed him to South Winneshiek High School in Calmar and later into the Army. This provided for many interesting episodes and stories, detentions and demotions, and a few "run ins" with the law, not just locally, but globally.

Tim worked at Camcar/Stanley Black and Decker in Decorah as a tool and die maker for 30 plus years. Tim worked with many friends and “a bunch of morons”. His words, not ours. Well not exactly his, words because that would have included a bunch of swear words.

Tim leaves behind a hell of a lot of stuff that his family doesn't know what to do with. So, if you are looking for a Virgin Mary in a bathtub shrine (you Catholics know what we’re talking about) you should wait the appropriate amount of time and get in touch with them.

Tomorrow would be fine.

In addition to his stuff he leaves behind two great boys who he was extremely proud of, Cody (Jenny) Schrandt and Josh (Lydia) Schrandt were the product of his marriage to Crystal Hilmer. He will be missed by his two granddaughters that he adored and taught to cuss, Peyton and MacKenna. Also left to keep the stories alive (but damn, there won"t be any new material) are his mother Mary Manning and siblings Mike (Rita Dixon) Schrandt, Marty (Clint) Berg, Becky Schrandt-Miles, Bill (Grease) Schrandt, Pam (Rick) Barnes, Peter (Sandra) Schrandt and many nieces, nephews and cousins that wanted to hang out near him, because you just knew he was going to say or do something good. It’s not that he was such a great storyteller, it’s that he WAS the story!

To his siblings amazement he was actually able to snag a good woman, Cheryl Murray, and hold on to her for the past 13 years, and as far as we know restraints were not used. Tim also created great memories and stories for Cheryl’s kids Alex (Christina) Murray and Samantha (Evan) Luedking and grandkids Tatum and Grace.

He will be having a reunion with his infant daughter Ashley, his brother Duke, his dad Bill Schrandt, many aunts and uncles and a handful of cousins that passed before him. Tim was in charge of getting the beer and ice for our family reunions, so they will be happy to see him.


A common line in obituaries is “He never met a stranger”, in Tim’s case he never met a rule he couldn’t break, a boundary he couldn’t push, a line he couldn’t cross and a story he couldn’t stretch. Another common obituary phrase is “He’d give the shirt off his back”, well Tim was prepared to do that, and he could do it quickly, because he always wore his shirts
unbuttoned ¾ the way down. Tim was anything but common!

Despite his crusty exterior, cutting remarks and stubbornness, there is actual evidence that he was a loving, giving and caring person. That evidence is the deep sorrow and pain in our hearts that his family feels from his passing.

Tim led a good life and had a peaceful death - but the transition was a bitch. And for the record, he did not lose his battle with cancer. When he died, the cancer died, so technically it was a tie! He was ready to meet his Maker, we're just not sure "The Maker" is ready to meet Tim.

Good luck God!

We are considering establishing a Go-Fund-Me account for G. Heileman Brewing Co., the brewers of Old Style beer, as we anticipate they are about to experience significant hardship as a result of the loss of Tim"s business. Keep them in your thoughts


https://www.schluterbalikfuneralhome.com/obituary/tim-schrandt?lud=4759246C096BEEA2A07A23120E236986&fbclid=IwAR0ropmU8yhjLsAhObNmbqknEDfc66k2sNlcArPq6__LVMuEnPBZEA-vH6M

I would have loved to have known Tim. I expect that we would have pissed each other off, which, in this case, is a good thing.

Thanks, Lash, for sharing one of the best obits I've ever read.

I just saw Cheyenne Autumn, with Richard Widmark. It was the first time I watched it. A John Ford film about the Cheyenne and the cavalry. As soon as it ended I Googled the movie and found this on Wikipedia:

Ford used Navajo people to portray the Cheyenne. Dialogue that is supposed to be the "Cheyenne language" is actually Navajo. This made little differences to white audiences, but for Navajo communities, the film became very popular because the Navajo actors openly were using ribald and crude language that had nothing to do with the film. For example, during the scene where the treaty is signed, the chief's solemn speech just pokes fun at the size of the colonel's penis. Academics now consider this an important moment in the development of Native Americans' identity because they are able to mock Hollywood's historical interpretation of the American West.[7]

That's a good gotcha.

A smile on my clients's face.

My incompetence.

Morning Exercise give me Smile

Last week, mid week, somebody came onto our farm an, in the darkness, left us a peep. Not so muh a peep but an apparent Pre Easter chick that had reached the equivalent age of a teen aged chicken. Its a young rooster who, after spending a day or two learning the pecking order, has turned it around and he, not by chicken -man strength but by his ability to negotiate and make alliances. He now run the yard and the other chickens, all pullets, are wanting to be with him. I say hes about 10 weeks old an is a white (look like a lghorn) rooster that eve named McNugget, so he can understand his career path if he screws up and doesnt obey the barn alpha(Mrs F). McNugget waits for people to come to the barn and then scurries tward you and begins peeping and just becoming a young "Peep". He allows one to pick him up and he will at from your hand. Whoever raised himto his adolescence must have had a lot of hans-on training .

I was out there this morning with my coffee checking on the lambs and ewes and, I sat down on a hay bale . Mcnugget was sitting on the back of a ewes like it was a nest. When he saw me he came running over and did his little dance around my legs till I got some peep food and let him eat out of my hand. Then he did something kinda gross. I wasnt watching closely and he came over and jumped up on the hay bale where I had my coffee cup and began drinking my coffee. He apparently needs coffee to get going in the AM so next time Ill bring a little paper cup for him. Mrs F says not to do that because he will get all wired and nervous.

No, I didnt drink from the coffee cup after McN got done. I have that cup in a Polyphosphate solution with clorox

Thank you for saying that about the clorox.

Boids are so nasty.

Maybe a year ago I walked out of my house, and a little boy, with his mother watching, was paddling his hands in the water in my birdbath, which, my method of cleaning is to turn the hose on full force on it once in a while.

The mother seems totally unconcerned.


Ok, my smile.

Just got a text that Wallette's (step daughter) girfriend Sparkle successfully defended her thesis. Now she is Dr. Sparkle!


Now they have some breathing space to decide on other important things, like marriage. Wallette indicated that's the trajectory.

The two bird stories reminded me of something that happened back when our offspring, little G'bag was about 9 or 10 years old. He called me at work to ask breathlessly "Mom, the kids at the bus stop found a nest of birds in that big squatty shrub....they shouldn't touch the babies right?" I told him the kids need to leave the birds alone, the mother will come back but not while the kids were fooling around. He seemed to be very anxious about the future of these birds, so I said a few more comforting things before a light bulb went off in my head, then I said, whatever you do, don't move the nest or bring the nest home. As soon as he asked 'why not??', I knew that nest was now sitting on the kitchen counter.....so, I did tell him that birds carry lice and other nasty things and they won't do well inside somebodies house....He took the bird nest back to that bush with the little birds inside, and we all wished the bird family well. Then I drove home and cloroxed the entire kitchen and young master g'bag. He meant well.